Video: Dancing Riotously, but Quietly, in the Library

Last week, John de Villier ’14 sent an email around with the alert: “The Quiet Riot iPod dance party is HAPPENING.” He promised a good time, and he used the enticement, “We’re going to be featured in the library’s monthly newsletter.”

On May 9 around 4:30 p.m., students started to appear in the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library wearing ear buds and headphones. At 4:40 p.m., they simultaneously pushed the buttons on their iPods and began dancing to “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen.

De Villier says he staged the Quiet Riot partly to “re-contextualize” normal activities. “Without sounding too much like a humanities major (I’m not one!), sometimes the programs that are the most fun are the ones that combine or re-contextualize normal, everyday activities in odd ways. Everyone dances and everyone goes to the library, but very few people have done both,” he writes in an email.

De Villier also says it was a way to unwind. “I just thought it would be nice to break up the end-of-semester black hole that is studying during reading period, and this seemed like a good way to do it. I wanted to do something that would be amusing to watch for the people who weren’t participating, and a good release for the people who did participate. Humiliating yourself publicly is a great way to burn off stress.”

He thanks Filipe Camarotti ’14 for helping him organize the Quiet Riot, as well as “everyone who showed up to dance with us so we didn’t look pathetic and ridiculous. And the biggest thanks go to the library and staff for putting up with us. Thanks so much!”

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